The Sporting Life

The family just returned from a vacation Up North in Antrim County, Michigan. It was a great time filled with sailing, fishing, kayaking and more of the sporting life.

How College Basketball Can Help Parents (Or Not)

The college basketball season tips off this week, and while the sport has taken a bad rap (see, Calipari, John, and Pitino, Rick), Old Wahoo still loves hoops.

While I know I should limit the kids' exposure to TV, I have to be realistic: they are going to watch college basketball with me. So they may as well know some common truths: North Carolina is evil, and Virginia (even when bad) is good. North Carolina, I'm convinced, made a deal with the Devil to win national titles in 1982 and '93. (Remember, the Heels won both of those games in New Orleans, the home of black magic, on crazy plays: Georgetown's Fred Brown passed the ball to James Worthy in '82, and Michigan's Chris Webber walked twice before calling a nonexistent timeout in '93).* Really, these are the only ground rules for watching college basketball with me, and the kids will know these by heart.

Perhaps more importantly, college basketball can show the kids that anything is possible. College basketball embraces the cliched-laden spectacle of March Madness, from the Big Dance to Cinderella, and those phrases can help the lazy parent pass on values such as hard work and never-give-up-ability (I like that word) to their couch-ridden children. Just talk about the amazing run of the 1983 N.C. State Wolfpack or the 1985 Villanova Wildcats (and try to have a selective memory, please), and tell them anything is possible.

Then, of course, there's Dick Vitale, and who wouldn't want him baby-sitting your children? In fact, I actually thought about imitating Mr. Vitale this morning when one of the kids starting acting up. I wanted to scream "YOU NEED A T-O, BABY!" at a misbehaving child, but then I imagined the look I would get from Mrs. Wahoo.

Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. And sometimes I think I need a new favorite sport.

*I'm kidding. Sort of. And apologies to Joe Posnanski and Bill Simmons for the use of footnotes.

Words of the Week

My football teams are hurting. When does college basketball season start? This week's quote comes from the Washington Post's story on the Redskins loss to the Lions.

"No question, yeah, we've got some problems. They [the coaches] do what they're supposed to do. They're putting us in position that you think would work on the field. They're putting us in position to execute. Even though to the public eye, the fans or the audience it looks like we ain't in the right position or we ain't making plays, they're calling the plays we think will work. But we've got to do something. We've got to get it worked out and come out and ball. And we got to hurry up and do it."

- Washington Redskins free safety LaRon Landry

A good day

Thanks to the sunny, spring weather, Old Wahoo has enjoyed the day. Alex and I already have played baseaball, continuing our game from yesterday. "I like all of the sports," Alex said after he played basketball and soccer yesterday in the back yard.

The funniest/grossest thing of the day came from Matthew, who proved again that he will eat anything, everything and any combination. At lunch, he dined on bananas, which he dipped liberally in his ketchup. Delicious. Of course, it didn't stop me from eating.

Blaming the refs

Old Wahoo heard an awful lot of complaining, not to mention screaming and yelling, about the referees at high school basketball games last week, and all of that whining angered me. People moaned about calls if their team was ahead by 20 points or down by 20 points. It didn’t matter. Can’t these people see, Old Wahoo wondered, that the refs are doing the best they can? It’s a high school basketball game. It’s not life and death. Besides, the best team won each time, and the officials’ calls had little, if anything to do with the outcome.
Unfortunately, Old Wahoo caught himself complaining about the referees’ calls in a college basketball game between Virginia Tech and North Carolina. To the chagrin and sometime embarrassment of others, I’ve long believed that officials had a UNC bias. While I should a college basketball game may (or may not) have higher stakes than a high school playoff matchup, I’m worried about my actions on a larger level. When my sons participate in athletics on a more competitive level, will I become one of those parents who embarrasses his kids with his yelling and screaming? Will I become one who berates officials?
I know I have in the past, and it’s something I must be vigilant on in the future. I know that my job has forced me to settle down somewhat - there is no cheering in the press box, after all. Maybe I’ll have to keep stats, or somehow keep myself occupied to be less focused on the outcome and the calls and more focused on the purpose of athletics - to grow physically and mentally to become a more complete person.

Upon further review ...

Wired.com points out that today is the 23rd anniversary of the NFL adopting instant replay. While instant replay in theory is a good idea, the NFL version is flawed and should follow the college system where there is another official upstairs to look at the video. Also, I think instant replay is still subjective. Some many decisions are open to interpretation, and what may be indisputable evidence to one official may not be to another.